Wednesday, 28 June 2017

I like perusing the titles of
books in the libraries of large country houses. They give an impression of the
interests of previous owners of the house and, because of my liking for
Natural History, it is volumes on this subject that particularly catch my eye
[1,2,3].

Last week, I visited Standen
House, the country home of the Beale family from the end of the Nineteenth
Century. It has lovely gardens and the interior of the house is decorated in
Arts and Craft style and contains some very fine furniture [4]. As would be
expected in the library of a family with seven children - and, later, grandchildren - there
were many volumes about fairy tales and adventure, but the book that stood out
for me was The Days and Nights of Birds
by the French amateur ornithologist Jacques Delamain (the cover of my copy is
shown above). Ornithology has always been a popular pastime, and many books
have been written about the habits, and habitats, of birds. In the Foreword of The Days and Nights of Birds [5] Delamain
writes:

"But has
not everything essential been said about birds?" The question was put to
me one day by Abel Bonnard who was unwilling to see too narrow a limit imposed
on his keen poetical curiosity. I assured him that this subject, like all which
touch nature, was inexhaustible. Indeed, for the seeker, one discovery leads to
another and new problems appear which the mind tries to solve. The beauty of
living creatures and the setting in which they move, life's harmony and
complexity, always awake in us unexpected echoes. Intellectual curiosity, the
aesthetic sense and poetry never fail to renew the world.

Each one of us
follows his own way, seeking to understand the mystery of creation. For some,
the way grows endlessly broader, embracing vast horizons, others advance slowly
and shortsightedly along a narrow path. But no one can set out without
discovering riches..

We can see that Delamain's
interest in birds was wrapped up with his love of Nature and he communicated
this in an attractive prose style that is apparent even in translation. It is
easy to see how readers may be stimulated to look more closely at birds after reading
his books and Delamain concludes the Foreword by writing:

My first book, Why Birds Sing, brought me precious
assurance from my readers that I had taught them how better to observe Nature,
and how to love her more. If my present volume induces them to look once more
on the ever varied spectacle offered to our eyes by the seasons as they pass,
and increase their interest in the creatures that people our fields, woods and
rivers, it will have fulfilled its purpose.

One can imagine Mr Beale, or visitors
to Standen, reading the book and using it as a guide to their own observations
on walks in the garden or around the estate.

The writings of Delamain influenced
many others, including the composer Olivier Messaien. Messiaen was fascinated
by birdsong and Hill and Simeone [6] describe the result of his visit to Delamain's
home La Branderaie de Gardépéé(see above):

In April 1952,..
.. Messaien took what proved to be a decisive step. At the suggestion of his
publisher Leduc he paid a short visit (15-17 April) to Jacques Delamain, a
leading ornithologist and prolific author. Delamain lived in south-west France,
his house at Gardépéé set in large wooded grounds midway
between Cognac and the neighbouring town of Jarnac, where the Delamain family
firm still produces brandy. Delamain's tuition enabled Messaien's knowledge of ornithology
to catch up with his musical aspirations. In particular, he learned to identify
birds solely through their songs or cries: 'It was [Delamain] who taught me to
recognise a bird from its song, without having to see its plumage or the shape
of its beak.'

..the visit to Delamain
proved a life-changing experience. Delamain inspired Messiaen to pursue his researches
in a more systematic way. The results can be seen in the surviving birdsong
notebooks, the Cahiers de notation des
chants d'oiseaux, in which Messaien started to collect his observations
from nature..

Messaien went on to compose Réveil des oiseaux and Hill and
Simeone [5] include a quote from the composer about this work:

"In Réveil des oiseaux [...] there's
really nothing but bird songs [...], without any added rhythm or counterpoint,
and the birds singing are really found together in nature; it's a completely
truthful work. It's about an awakening of birds in the beginning of a spring
morning; the cycle goes from midnight to noon: night songs, an awakening at
four in the morning, a big tutti of birds cut short by the sunrise, forenoon
songs, and the great silnce of noon.."

You can hear the piece in this video
clip [7] and it is interesting that it follows a sequence of bird song through
a day, perhaps in homage to Delamain's Days
and Nights of Birds.

I find the link between Delamain
and Messaien fascinating: a great composer and a wonderful writer both
communicating about Nature and the pleasure that it gave them. Thank you
Standen, and the National Trust, for giving me a chance to tell the story.

Thursday, 1 June 2017

The quote in the title of this
post comes from All the articles of the
Darwin faith (of which 67 are given) published in 1875 by the Reverend F.
O. Morris [1 – see above for its dedication]. This was sixteen years after
Darwin's On the origin of species and
Morris was tenacious in his opposition to all those who supported the idea of the
evolution of species from more primitive ancestors. Morris's central argument
can be summarised by a quote from his book:

..Mr Darwin
[starts] by assuming his principle of
evolution as the sole origin of species, and rejecting separate creation as
"unscientific". In other words, you must first grant that man is descended from a monkey, and then it
is "not difficult to conceive" the intermediate steps; but if you
decline to admit this petitio principii,
you are wilfully closing your eyes to what Mr Darwin assures you is the fact.
Such is the entire circle of this gentleman's logic. The book is full of
interesting observations on natural history, exhibiting more or less relevancy
to the argument it seeks to sustain; but the induction never advances a step without
a confession of logical defectiveness. We are treated to tendencies, and
probabilities and conjectures, which derive all their force from a previous
assumption of the point to be proved. Take away this, and there is hardly a
proposition in the whole work which could pretend to the character of a logical
conclusion.

Another key argument against the
idea of evolution is given in one of the earlier "articles" as
proposed by Morris:

In fine, I
believe that although the Mosaic account of the Creation is borne out by the
"Testimony of the Rocks" in a most wonderful manner, yet it does not
suit the theory I have taken into my head, it cannot possibly be true, and I do
not believe a word of it.

There are thus two prongs to Morris's
attack: that Darwin based his ideas on an assumption; and that those who
"believe" in evolution are opposed to the biblical description of
Creation. So, who was Morris and why did he feel the need to publish his
attack?

The son of a Royal Navy officer,
Morris was brought up in a strict and loving home and "the sterner and
determined nature of the father and the exceeding gentleness and tenderness of
the mother were united in the son to a remarkable degree" [2]. As a young
boy, he had a strong interest in Natural History and this was to stay with him
through his time at Oxford (where he read Classics) and after he was ordained
in the Church of England. He became famous as the author of a number of books
on birds and insects (see some title pages below, top), that were based on his own collections
and on detailed observations. Although these works gained him recognition, and
a small income, he was fortunate in having the living at Nunburnholme in the
Yorkshire Wolds, a small parish that came with a rectory and an income that
sustained him and his family for many years (from 1854 -1893) . He is buried
next to the church (shown below, bottom).

Earlier he had been the rector at
Nafferton for nine years (16 miles from Nunburnholme [3]), a larger parish providing
a smaller living [2,4], and, during his time there, he began to collaborate
with the printer Benjamin Fawcett of Driffield, resulting in the History of British Birds and his other
popular works of Natural History. These were only one result of his industry,
for he wrote many pamphlets, read papers at meetings, and corresponded widely. He
enjoyed discussion with friends, especially Richard Wilton, who was the Rector
of an adjacent parish, and they spent many hours in conversation on many topics.
Among these was the increasing influence of "Darwinism" [2].

Somewhat isolated as a country
parson, Morris was highly conservative and could not tolerate change. This
orthodoxy, manifest in his views on practices within the Church of England, may
be the basis of his disdain for Darwin, who knew that characters like Morris
would be waiting after the publication of the Origin. In an essay on Morris, Charles A Kofoid writes [5]:

His antipathy
to Darwinism found.. ..persistent expression, and, because of his position as a
well-known naturalist and his wide acquaintance in clerical, educational, and
military circles, probably had some temporary influence as shown by
appreciative letters which he copied in the later editions of his
anti-Darwinian pamphlets.. .. His long experience as a naturalist seemed not to
have given him any insight into the phenomenon of adaptation, the existence of
natural selection, or the meaning of an experiment. His Oxford training in
logic did not help him to the significance of an hypothesis nor that in ethics
to an appreciation of courtesy in argument.

This is a rather harsh judgement
and similar to the contemporary one provide by T. H. Huxley that Holt [3]
describes as a "masterpiece of the 'expert patronizing the layman'
genre", Huxley suggesting that:

Morris should
spend five or six years studying physical and biological science, then should
read Origin of Species 'with the same
earnest desire to grasp their real meaning, as I doubt not, animated you when
you read your Bible'.

Unsurprisingly, Morris stuck to
his guns after this attack.

In fairness, it is still difficult
to design experiments that might be conducted over the time scales needed to demonstrate
evolutionary processes. Of course, we now have the ability to examine the
genetic structure of organisms and see computer-constructed lineages that
clearly demonstrate the mechanism of evolution. Experiments with micro-organisms
can also be conducted over over short time scales, but with many generations
and with huge populations. None of this was possible in Morris's time and I
wonder what he would feel about evolution, and Darwin's ideas, were he alive
today?

There was never a tide against
the ideas contained in On the origin of
species, as Morris had predicted. Indeed, Darwin's book is regarded as a hugely
influential masterpiece, even by the opponents of its ideas on evolution, while
Morris's contribution to the debate on evolution has been forgotten by most.